Best Supporting Actor 1965: Ian Bannen in The Flight of the Pheonix

Ian Bannen received his only Oscar nomination for portraying "Rat Bags" Crow in The Flight of the Phoenix.

The Flight of the Phoenix tells the story of a group of passengers attempt to create a new plane to fly after their old one crashed making them stranded in the middle of the desert.

This simply is one of the oddest nominations ever in this category. I have no idea how the academy managed to single Bannen out in this film, and nominate him. First of all there were many many actors more deserving than Bannen in this film in many other films this year, secondly they could have nominated almost anyone else in the cast of this film and that person would have been more deserving, thirdly if they had to nominate Ian Bannen why would they nominate him for this rather than his far far far (all three are required) superior performance in The Hill as one of the few good men running a military prison.

I say all this because the very first time I watched the film solely to watch the film I did not even notice him. When I read he was nominated for an Oscar for his performance, I could barely remember that he was in it much less recall what he really did in the film. Now that I watch it again, and purposefully watched it only to see him in the film, and I still had trouble noticing even when I was especially watching just for him. When I did notice him though all I saw him do was mugging to the camera as well as attempting to be comedy relief I guess by saying every line in an over the top fashion, never anything. This is just a bad, unmemorable performance that did not deserve to be recognized.